The mayor of San José, Matt Mahan, declared this Monday that homelessness in San José has become a crisis, which is why he declared an ordinance in which he commits to building safe and decent housing for those people who They are homeless.
?Homelessness is an emergency and it is time we treat it as such. "We are here today to introduce a new ordinance that will commit San Jose to building safe and decent housing faster, and reducing barriers in the way, this will help end our era of encampments for the good of the entire city," he said. Mahan in Spanish during his meeting with the press.
Accompanied by the vice mayor, Rosemary Kamei, councilors David Cohen and Omar Torres, and the founder and executive director of the Dignity Moves organization, Elizabeth Funk, he pointed out that, with these actions, people will have a safe, dignified shelter and on the path to a more permanent solution.
?The important thing here is that we call homelessness a crisis and emergency. Our actions have been doing this for many years, but our actions have to match those words. "We have to treat homelessness as a crisis, as an emergency, and that's what this statement does," Mahan said.
The official specified that the declaration commits the city to accelerate actions through all possible levers, to build all decent and safe housing, and transfer people living in camps to them.
He recalled that when the earthquake occurred in San Francisco in 1906, where more than 5,060 people were left homeless, the government quickly built very basic anti-seismic houses, so that people would have a decent place and their own room. ?They went into action, because it was a real emergency.?
"On our streets, homelessness is an emergency," Mahan stressed, calling for rhetoric to match actions.
"We have to move quickly to build safe and decent alternatives to the camps. We could end homelessness in a year," he said.
?If an earthquake occurred that left 4,000 of our San José neighbors homeless, in 72 hours we would have FEMA trailers at the county fairgrounds. So we have to act like it. Is it time for the blame game to end? he stressed.
In that sense, he called for finding ways to accelerate the process for the creation of these homes, such as modifying the terms of land use and zoning requirements, so that there are no obstacles for these sites to be exist and the decision-making process can be streamlined.
"To me, that's what a real crisis demands, that we can get these sites up quickly and efficiently with minimal process and then start demanding people come support us," he added.
Mahan explained that the city is in the process of erecting an entire stretch of camps along the river, but not before offering everyone who lives there a place to live.
And, very often, he said, homeless people are victims of organized crime, in addition to being at risk of dying prematurely.
?Last year, 246 individuals died on our streets, in camps, those not managed due to lack of access to basic housing and health. So, this is a crisis, and we have to treat it as a crisis?
At the time, Councilman David Cohen highlighted that residents and the city council are frustrated by the lack of housing and the lack of solutions for it.
He said that while it is Council's obligation to remove barriers from the road to ensure things can be done as quickly as possible, it currently takes months or more than a year to get a site ready and open the property. ?That is not acceptable!?
Elizabeth Punk, founder and executive director of Dignity Moves, an organization that works to end homelessness in communities by building temporary supportive homes as a quick solution to the problem, explained that "solving the problem of people in street situation, doesn't it mean putting an end to them?
Homelessness, he said, "is part of a much larger and more complex problem, but it is the most inhumane, visible and, fortunately, the most solvable."
?Everyone agrees that permanent housing is the solution to ending homelessness, but you can't do it on your own. "It's really part of a system and the most important thing to understand is that, for every person who gets permanent housing, three are falling into homelessness," he added.
?My math shows that you can't catch up with that system if your only exit point is building permanent housing. If we could put people in temporary housing, where they can receive services now, more than 80 percent of them have other outlets that they can find and not be waiting for that permanent housing. Is that what we want to do? he highlighted.
On September 29, the newly renovated Arena Hotel in San José reopened to help the area's homeless.
The 90-room hotel in The Alameda, about two miles from Santa Clara University, is one of five Project Homekey sites designed to provide temporary housing for homeless people.
Most rooms are for single adults. There are 10 double occupancy rooms and pets are welcome. The long-term plan calls for tearing down the building to build up to 200 permanent, affordable apartments.
The $46 million interim housing project was funded through Measure E and California's Project Homekey. The city received $125.5 million from the state.
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